The Tragedy of the Second Child
by Hermonthis
Summary: Ozai/Ursa. And sometimes, she loves this man who is too blind to see alternate truths. Their daughter’s birth brings about the end of her mother.


**The Tragedy of the Second Child

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When he first meets her, he thinks her ancient name is the only thing that supports her pretty frame.

A smart mind, a sweet mouth, and a soft face should not, and does not belong to a daydreaming scholar. His young heart cannot understand, and for the next four years still cannot comprehend that something so beautiful can grow out of a life of relative poverty. He is right in thinking there is remnants of royal blood in her. And so he takes her name and her family back into the good graces of the royal family, and marries her.

He wonders what she thinks of his heritage, worries whether she retains any doubts as he shares his bed. After all, the life of an aristocrat must different greatly from than of an almost working-class girl, the oldest and only daughter of a wealthy merchant. The next descendant of the Avatar.

Hot blood comes to his temples quickly, and despite her best attempts to sooth his temperamental outbursts of paternal favouritism with her cool, rain-like hands, all she can do is fold her fingers into the shape of a temple and bow her head. Life in the palace is not what she imagines it to be, and it hurts her heart to admit the experience holds little promise of getting better.

The life of the second prince and his Cinderella wife catch the attention of the court when Ursa declares her pregnancy. Their first child. For some unfathomable reason, Ozai is furious with his brother, General Iroh of the Fire Nation military, despite her in-law's best wishes for his first niece or nephew. Once, while they are sitting in the gardens taking tea, the man she welcomes as her brother expressed his aged desire to mend the rift between brothers.

Two small confessions. Their mother, Fire Lady Illah, was also a firebender. Back in her day, her blood was considered foreign to the throne. His late wife, a princess no one remembers, who lives in the bright eyes of his only son.

That night Ozai rages at her for daring to bring up such a subject. It is painful for him to talk about siblings, and what does it matter? Ursa suffers no brother or sister. She only has her peace-loving grandfather. But look at the wonderful life he brought her into, does she take all of this for granted?

The princess wrings her hands and swallows her tongue. Sometimes, she loves this man who is too blind to see alternate truths. Ozai turns his golden eyes upon her, full of shadows and tormented by monsters, and says maybe their firstborn should be an only child, too.

Their daughter's birth brings about the end of her mother. In a land that cannot see a woman's loneliness despite her privilege, the arrival of her daughter makes Ursa cry. This is not the world she wants her baby to grow up in; this is not the grandfather she wants her child to be named after.

Ozai holds his infant daughter like he used to hold his son. It is painfully obvious to them both which child they each favour, and which child will replace them in the royal fire nation timeline. As the years grow, caresses lessen, and now the only thing that binds them together is the love for their children. For the sake of forgetting something that once might have been love between a man and a woman, Ursa is the first one to announce her transformed life is the result of an arranged marriage.

She does not write it down or shout it. Instead, she whispers it into his ear just before retiring to bed. It is Ozai's turn to take care of his daughter. Between them, it comes as no surprise when she moves back into her former chambers in the palace – closer to Zuko, and father away from them.

It is not he who misunderstands, it is she. He loves his title in a way she has never understood, and his ambition to prove to his father the child of his old age is more than just a waste of hot breath. In his confusion, he places the blame on the mother. To choose one baby over another, to isolate one child and break up his perfect royal family – it hurts him in ways he does not know. It is not envy nor is it anger, but Ozai identifies this emotion as a deep, profound sorrow.

His daughter is asleep. The only female grandchild to Fire Lord Azulon, and the last baby his estranged wife will give him. And in that thought, he immediately decides it is a blessing Azula did not inherit the sadness in her mother's eyes, a realization that comes several years too late.

He will attach himself to this child like Ursa does to Zuko, he will raise her in his likeness and she will learn to love the throne. She will be everything her mother is not, he will spare her the years of subtle treacheries (_memories of making love to Ursa in their bed_) and he will teach his young daughter, yet to learn how to walk, to become one of the best firebenders in the world.

And he thinks that with this sleeping baby in his arms, the curse of the second child will be broken. For several generations it is sons, not daughters, whose decisions shape the world. He will break the chain and release the royal family from the curse of foreign women. Azula is different; she is his.

And he thinks that is good.


End file.
